[QUOT(they don't have the competitive advantage of Discount Airline Pilot wages, but market forces are addressing that to a degree).[/QUOTE]

Hmmm, aren’t legacy salaries subsidized by thousands of regional pilots? For years they were the ultimate discount pilot. Maybe you have more of a competitive advantage than you realize.

Pilots are mostly paid by the aircraft size so the labor savings isn't as significant as the labor saved on paying all the other personnel such as ground workers, FAs, gate agents, etc.

As an example, FAs at my company make $70/hr top scale (and there are a ton at top scale) where as at my regional they topped out around $40 and there were maybe a half dozen at that rate. Same goes for ground crew, here it's $35/hr IIRC and at the contractors they start at $13 and top out around $17 IIRC.

Meanwhile pilots on the 50 seaters make around $80/hr and our 737/A320 guys make around $270. So not a huge disparity in how the salary scales on a per pax basis.

Probably one of the most inaccurate arguments I have ever heard, and it's surprising how much mainline pilots blindly believe it. The disparity is often more than 100%.

First year CA pay on the A319 (128 seats): $255/hour = $2 per seat
First year CA pay on the E175 (76 seats): $76/hour = $1 per seat

Run that "Proportionate" math by me one more time. It gets even more ridiculous if you compare FO seats and higher productivity of regional pilots.

Regional pilot subsidize mainline pilot wages. It's a Ponzi scheme.

What about airlines with no regional affiliation? Who subsidizes those pilots?

What was inaccurate about my numbers?

If you want I could use our 777/787 pay but that would actually skew in my favor. I chose the mid level numbers instead of picking and choosing to make my own point.

12 year CA pay between the 737 and 175 is off by about 15% favoring mainline. That's it.

If you are only factoring in straight pay the yes. But benefits, profit sharing, and 401k DC aren’t even close to the same at the regional level.

According to multiple guys on this thread, they themselves do.

It is much harder and more selective to get hired at mainline. Pilots of lower qualification are interviewed for regional jobs, that is why they are there instead of at a mainline interview. The market pays more to the more qualified and higher vetted labor.

"Regional pilots do the same exact job as mainline and get paid less. They subsidize mainline. It's a Ponzi scheme."

It's hard to take seriously guys making $100k+ with four weeks vacation complaining that they are underpaid. Also, go to mainline if you think you deserve more, this is literally the hottest hiring market in part 121 ever.

Are they in their unions negotiating committee? If not I give zero craps.

Everyone is a victim nowadays.

You chose first year numbers as a comparison? Seriously? What's the average seniority of regional captains? Definitely not year 1. At legacies, it will probably be year 12. And NB legacy CAs top out year 12 at less than $300/hr so your numbers are bovine excrement.